Whenever a story ends, uncomfortable feelings of emptiness surface.

That “story” could be a movie I’m watching, a TV series, a video game, a chapter in life, etc. Early this week, I somehow felt lost in life. Not sure if it was the lack of sleep that’s driving it. I wonder if it was due to things I once had or do that ended: my parental leave, my bosses at work moving on to new roles, and the TV series—Vincenzo. But the feeling only lasted for a day.

After writing in my journal the next day, I had the clarity I needed.

***

An employee from another group contacted me to talk about Excel macros.

This tells me that word got out that I fix the macros at work—the kind of stuff I wanted to do. During my evaluation, I emphasized my desire to be the “macro guy” and give up the “electrical review guy” title. This is one of my career goals this year.

But why Excel macros?

AI is only going to get better and better. Understanding how code works will help me “communicate” better with AI. So far, I created a tool (with ChatGPT) to allow me to highlight keywords in a document. Why? It’s so easy to miss an important requirement when you’re too tired to fly through a 100+ page document.

I’m currently testing it.

***

I no longer feel that guilty when I skip working out in the morning.

Following Andrew Bustamante’s version of self-discipline helped me manage the self-punishment of skipping a “healthy” habit. Instead of following a routine religiously, I do what makes more sense to do at the moment. I’m gonna try to do something more “natural”.

The goal now is to be consistent—not to carve self-discipline.